Name: The Trunk
ISBN: 9781529949353

Kim Ryeo Ryeong

As a professional wife, you have to meet your clients needs with precision. But not everything goes according to plan…

The Trunk

I can see why most don't enjoy this book. I'm not an expert but after reading a few Korean novels, I'm slightly more familiar with the dry tone of their novels. So I was not taken aback but this book was still a shock, especially since I read this after watching the emotionally tempestuous TV adaptation. 

Unsurprisingly, this novel has a very clinical and report-like tone. It feels more like a newspaper article than a novel. There's no plot here. Instead, the chapters are more like daily or by-weekly work reports that the narrator shares with us. And the enthusiasm with which she shares these facts is similar to that of a bored and disillusioned office worker. There's no romance here. There's barely any human connection but despite the lack of it in the main character's life, she is hung up on human connection. The book dissects human relationships through these mundane interactions but hardly reaches conclusive answers, instead leaving the reader with more confused questions to digest in your own time. 

I think the most interesting thing about this book is not in what it says but what it doesn't say in between the lines. Our narrator may not be unreliable, but she's evasive. 

I would also categorise this as Korean feminist literature as the book directly addresses multiple dilemmas of social identity women might go through in modern South Korea, as well as, explicitly displaying some of the hardships they go through. The ending in particular is chilling and left an entirely different impression on me than the rest of the book combined. 

Overall, I would not say this book is particularly enjoyable but I think it's still worth reading as it brings up some very interesting points through a bizarre, slightly dystopian, but ultimately darkly plausible narrative. 

Autumn 

I can see why most don't enjoy this book. I'm not an expert but after reading a few Korean novels, I'm slightly more familiar with the dry tone of their novels. So I was not taken aback but this book was still a shock, especially since I read this after watching the emotionally tempestuous TV adaptation. 

Unsurprisingly, this novel has a very clinical and report-like tone. It feels more like a newspaper article than a novel. There's no plot here. Instead, the chapters are more like daily or by-weekly work reports that the narrator shares with us. And the enthusiasm with which she shares these facts is similar to that of a bored and disillusioned office worker. There's no romance here. There's barely any human connection but despite the lack of it in the main character's life, she is hung up on human connection. The book dissects human relationships through these mundane interactions but hardly reaches conclusive answers, instead leaving the reader with more confused questions to digest in your own time. 

I think the most interesting thing about this book is not in what it says but what it doesn't say in between the lines. Our narrator may not be unreliable, but she's evasive. 

I would also categorise this as Korean feminist literature as the book directly addresses multiple dilemmas of social identity women might go through in modern South Korea, as well as, explicitly displaying some of the hardships they go through. The ending in particular is chilling and left an entirely different impression on me than the rest of the book combined. 

Overall, I would not say this book is particularly enjoyable but I think it's still worth reading as it brings up some very interesting points through a bizarre, slightly dystopian, but ultimately darkly plausible narrative. 

This is just about the bare bones of a novel, frankly; it feels just about a level above an outline, so it is a little difficult to state my opinion confidently. The prose (whether it was the translation itself or just the general prose) also did not help - it seemed to jump in a way that a much more abstract and literarily ambitious novel would (which it is not), its style and vocubulary also inconsistent. The characters also seemed more like sketches of such than someone you could get invested in or you could try and understand.

All of the above are not things I generally mind, especially when they are executed well, but I wish the novel had just taken time to breathe and flesh itself out. It had really excellent ideas behind it but even the leitmotif of the trunk (and what it was meant to represent) seemed more like a bookend exercise; not woven into the fabric of the novel and serving the purposes of the narration but rather just something the author wanted to use and hamfisted throughout.

And I know that, like many people, I picked this up in anticipation of the Netflix adaptation. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that the team behind it take the good ideas and truly develop them as there could be something truly excellent at the end of this.

This is just about the bare bones of a novel, frankly; it feels just about a level above an outline, so it is a little difficult to state my opinion confidently. The prose (whether it was the translation itself or just the general prose) also did not help - it seemed to jump in a way that a much more abstract and literarily ambitious novel would (which it is not), its style and vocubulary also inconsistent. The characters also seemed more like sketches of such than someone you could get invested in or you could try and understand.

All of the above are not things I generally mind, especially when they are executed well, but I wish the novel had just taken time to breathe and flesh itself out. It had really excellent ideas behind it but even the leitmotif of the trunk (and what it was meant to represent) seemed more like a bookend exercise; not woven into the fabric of the novel and serving the purposes of the narration but rather just something the author wanted to use and hamfisted throughout.

And I know that, like many people, I picked this up in anticipation of the Netflix adaptation. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that the team behind it take the good ideas and truly develop them as there could be something truly excellent at the end of this.

The Trunk

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